The Business of Dressing Up People as Food

Aug. 19, 2009 - PRLog -- “It seems to be something people never get tired of seeing.”  This is what Total Fabrication founder/president Kenneth J. Hall says of people dressed up in food costumes.  “I remember one commercial I saw as a kid with a guy wearing a fig costume standing on one foot.  All these years later, it’s still funny.”

Hall’s company, located in Van Nuys, California, makes custom specialty costumes for film and TV as well as live venues.  In their fourteen years of business, he has been called on many times to create food-related costumes.  “I believe the first time was a commercial for a flavored Miracle Whip,” he recalls.  “We did a jar costume to match the product along with an onion, a garlic bulb, and a sandwich.  The latter costume was worn by a young actress.  She had a fake tomato slice for a hat with a bite-mark in the ‘bread’ forming the neckline.”  Hall laughs, “It was weird hearing the clients ask for less ‘lettuce’ to stick out of the sandwich bottom so more of her legs would show.”

The team at Total Fabrication sculpts these creations in lightweight, flexible foam, then coats and paints them realistically.  “We once simulated oversized peach fuzz by applying flocking to the finished surface,” Hall says.  That was for a series of Snapple commercials, where half a dozed other fruits had to be made.  They have done a chorus-line of hamburgers for Hardees, an old-fashioned ice cream churn for Breyers, and a tap-dancing bunch of bananas for Scott Tissue, among others. For the Fours Winds Casino, they made three t-bone steaks, a trio of cherries, a baked potato, and a boiled crab.

One of their most conspicuous characters of late is “Senor Donut,” an elaborate mascot costume for the movie SEX DRIVE.  “We made three duplicates because of the amount of action required.  It wound up being used as the key image in the film’s advertising,” explains Hall.  “I saw our guy on everything from buses to billboards.  Ever since then, our website (http://totalfab.com) gets constant inquiries from people wanting to purchase ‘Senor Donut,’ for their personal use.”

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Total Fabrication has over 25 years experience in commercials, motion pictures, television, theater, theme parks, and trade shows. We design and create custom characters, creatures,specialty costumes, sci-fi/fantasy armor, mascots, walkarounds.